THE WEEK

A man entering a Senate office building was arrested for carrying two submachine guns, a pistol, and 146 rounds of ammunition. He explained that he was acting as a bodyguard for Mr. Gun Control himself, Senator Edward Kennedy. He was released when Kennedy confirmed his story. In a public statement, Kennedy added that he is still personally opposed to guns.

Gary Bauer, Under Secretary of Education, looked into half a dozen secondary-school texts in world history recently, and gave their treatment of Communism a C-minus. The Ukraine famine is a non-fact; boat people sail for no obvious reason. One text notes that Soviet women “receive equal pay for equal work” and “vote when they are 18.” Another credits the Soviet Union with “almost total literacy. … In fact, reading has become a national pastime.” Material for teachers is hardly better than the kids’ stuff. “In Western Europe and the United States,” a booklet on human rights by the National Council for the Social Studies explains, “civil and political rights such as freedom of speech, voting, and due process are of prime concern. In Eastern European countries, economic rights such as the right to work, to form trade unions, to strike, and to take vacations are considered essential.” One of the authors of such pabulum told Bauer he was “afraid of raising the temperature of indignation” in the world. “So I am generally inclined to tone down what brutalities there are.” Once upon a time, there would have been indignation at home. But that would be too brutal for textbook writers.

Featured Tags

Martin Luther King Jr

A man entering a Senate office building was arrested for carrying two submachine guns, a pistol, and 146 rounds of ammunition. He explained that he was acting as a bodyguard for Mr. Gun Control himself, Senator Edward Kennedy. He was released when Kennedy confirmed his story. In a public statement, Kennedy added that he is still personally opposed to guns.

Gary Bauer, Under Secretary of Education, looked into half a dozen secondary-school texts in world history recently, and gave their treatment of Communism a C-minus. The Ukraine famine is a non-fact; boat people sail for no obvious reason. One text notes that Soviet women “receive equal pay for equal work” and “vote when they are 18.” Another credits the Soviet Union with “almost total literacy. … In fact, reading has become a national pastime.” Material for teachers is hardly better than the kids’ stuff. “In Western Europe and the United States,” a booklet on human rights by the National Council for the Social Studies explains, “civil and political rights such as freedom of speech, voting, and due process are of prime concern. In Eastern European countries, economic rights such as the right to work, to form trade unions, to strike, and to take vacations are considered essential.” One of the authors of such pabulum told Bauer he was “afraid of raising the temperature of indignation” in the world. “So I am generally inclined to tone down what brutalities there are.” Once upon a time, there would have been indignation at home. But that would be too brutal for textbook writers.